For experienced, expert, and even recreational water skiers, water skiing can be a fast paced athletic event in which skiers move at high speeds across the water behind a boat. This is particularly true for slalom water skiing, where the skier skis on a single water ski or slalom ski. The boat is traveling at a high speed (e.g., 32 to 36 mph), and the slalom skier is commonly cutting back and forth across the boat's wake at even faster speeds (e.g., 40-70 mph). Expert skiers test their skills through a ski course in which the boat travels through a center path of buoys while the skier cuts side to side around a sequence of six buoys. It is not uncommon for water skiers, even expert ones, to fall during their ski runs. When high speeds are involved, the falls can result in injury to the skier. Traditionally, a skier placed his feet inside boots, which were fixedly attached to the slalom ski. During a crash, the ski would either remain on the skier's feet or fall off.
As the sport equipment evolved, slalom skies were constructed with more safety in mind for high-speed crashes. For instance, releasable bindings now exist that allow disconnection of boots from a ski in the event of a violent fall. Such bindings may disconnect the boots from the ski upon occurrence of a shearing motion of the skier relative to the ski, which may happen during a fall while the skier is crossing the boat wake. In certain situations, the violent falls involve the skier being displaced in a direction towards a front of the ski. This type of violent fall is known as an off the front (OTF) fall. In violent OTF falls, the existing bindings disconnect the boots and hence the skier from the ski, thereby attempting to prevent injury to the skier.
However, some of the violent falls do not involve a shearing motion of the skier relative to the ski. Instead, some of the violent falls involve a compression motion of the skier relative to the ski. For example, some of the violent falls involve the skier being displaced in a direction towards a top of the ski. A violent fall involving the skier being displaced in a direction towards a top of the ski is referred to in the skiing world as a crushing off the front (COTF) fall. In a violent COTF fall, the existing bindings fail and do not disconnect the boots from the ski, failing to prevent injury to the skier.
Moreover, because the COTF fall involves the skier being displaced in a direction towards a top of the ski, a weight of the skier and the compressive forces of deceleration are focused on a front foot of the skier, while a back foot of the skier is almost completely unloaded. Thus, a front ankle of the skier is forced to over-flex, and in many cases the skier ruptures his or her Achilles tendon, dislocates the peroneal tendon, fractures the front ankle, or some combination thereof.
Accordingly there remains a need in the art for a releasable binding system that disconnects the boots from the ski during violent falls involving a compression motion of the skier relative to the ski to prevent injury to the skier. Stated otherwise, there remains a need in the art for a releasable binding system that disconnects the boots from the ski during a COTF fall to prevent a front ankle of the skier from being forced to over-flex.